BA 324 - Business Communication - Barrett - 01990

Business Communication (BA 324) 01945 MWF 8:00 a.m., CBA 4.322 01950 TTh 8:00 a.m., CBA 4.322 01990 MWF 12:00 noon, CBA 4.330 Fall 2011

Instructor Michael J. Barrett, Ph.D. Office: GSB 4.126F, 232-6950, [email protected] Hours: MW 9:00-10:00, TTh 9:30-10:30, and by appointment

Student Assistant Kayla Riggs [email protected]

The McCombs School of Business offers BA 324 to support undergraduate students in cultivating core professional skills for writing, speaking, and collaborating in the modern business environment. You need these skills to succeed in subsequent courses, internships, and professional positions. You can find the course mission statement in the McCombs School BA 324 Master Syllabus for the course.

Required Materials

 Textbook: Business Communication: Process & Product (7th edition), Mary Ellen Guffey and Dana Loewy  Three-ring, loose-leaf binder with dividers for filing and organizing important class handouts, materials, and assignments

Learning Objectives

Your work in this course should help you gain knowledge, skills, and self-awareness in business communication to function as a knowledge professional in an information age. You can find course objectives in the McCombs School BA 324 Master Syllabus for the course.

Summary Knowledge Goals

 recognize various communication contexts and how to address them  identify, locate, and incorporate library resources for research and background information  understand basic terms, principles, and protocols of grammar and style for standard edited business English 2

Summary Skill Goals

 use the 3x3 writing process to plan, organize, and revise business documents that are correct, appropriate, efficient, and effective  deliver effective business presentations in formal and informal contexts  collaborate as a team member to complete a project  practice effective interpersonal skills to support workplace harmony and productivity

Summary Self-Awareness Goals

 achieve confidence in using 21st century communication technology  monitor use of language and gestures to support communication  cultivate sensitivity to language-rooted features of messages produced and received

Class Policies

In any business workspace, professionals know to honor policies—sometimes unwritten—that support harmony, creativity, and productivity. So too should we in our workspace in CBA 4.322. In concert with course policies included in the McCombs School BA 324 Master Syllabus, here are class policies for our learning community.

 Put away the electronic devices, including the notebooks/laptops/netbooks, smart phones, iPods, and the rest. Each class session is a business meeting, making the time inappropriate for surfing, texting, tweeting, or messaging. When you need laptops for team presentations and a few in-class workshops and assignments, I’ll announce the dates. And please silence your devices, including vibration notification, which is hardly silent.  Come to class on time and prepared, with reading or homework complete and with the textbook, course materials, loose-leaf binder. Be ready to be a productive member of your project team. And you’ll use these materials for most in-class activity, which may be brief and which may not be made up. Arriving late affects your class participation grade, as well as costing you the opportunity to earn quiz credit and costing you the goodwill of your team members.  Respect yourself, your classmates, and me by turning in neat, polished work. Assignments you complete outside of class should be typed, appropriately formatted, and proofed. Don’t let your computer’s spell- and grammar-check functions let you down.  Meet deadlines. Turn in a paper copy in class on the scheduled due date (or earlier if you’re not going to be in class that day. Don’t trust your printer, driver, software, or power source: equipment failure doesn’t give you an acceptable excuse for late work. In business, when it positively absolutely has to be there, it positively absolutely has to be there. No different here.  Plan ahead. This course challenges you to model professional skills and behaviors, so your grade will be affected by attendance and punctuality. After three (in MWF sections) or two (in TTh sections) unexcused absences, your point total for the final grade will be debited one point for each additional unexcused absence, and six or more unexcused absences can result in a substantial reduction of at least a letter grade for the course.  Be a good teammate. Your course grade, no less than your reputation, depends critically on your reliability in fulfilling your team responsibilities. If you fail to participate 2 3 actively or productively in your team, forcing the other team members to do work you should have done or making their work much more difficult or stressful, the result will be a substantial reduction in your final course grade.  Be scrupulous about academic integrity by fulfilling all the responsibilities listed in the UT Austin Policies for Academic Integrity. Avoiding plagiarism is a key tenet of academic integrity.  Ask soon or forever hold your peace. See me for questions about the accuracy of the grading of an assignment within 5 business days of receiving the grade. After that, a graded assignment is not eligible for review. . Components of Your Final Grade

Area Points

Writing (55%) Writing Assignments (50 each) 350 Team business plan project formal report: work plan, and agreement 50 Team business plan project formal report: individual component 75 Team business plan project formal report: team component 75 Area Total 550

Speaking (30%) Impromptu presentation 20 Prepared presentation: individual 50 Prepared presentation: 2-3 person work group 100 Team business plan project formal report: team presentation 130 Area Total 300

Professional Development (15%) Class participation 30 Daily quiz performance 30 Exams 90 Area Total 150

Grand Total 1000

Supplemental Credit Opportunities Grammar and expression resources: Guffey, Blackboard, elsewhere 30-credit Diagnostic and skill-building resources threshold: 10 Show and Tell contributions points added to total

After dividing the point grand total by 10, BA 324 instructors report final course grades based on a uniform scale established by the McCombs School:

A above 92.9 B 83-86.9 C 73-76.9 D 63-66.9 A- 90-92.9 B- 80-82.9 C- 70-72.9 D- 60-62.9 B+ 87-89.9 C+ 77-79.9 D+ 67-69.9 F below 60

Supplemental Credit Opportunities

You can earn a one-time bonus of 10 points—to be added directly to your grand total—by accumulating at least 30 credits from completing optional activities that enrich your learning and the class’ experience. This is an all-or-nothing opportunity: you must earn 30 credits to receive 3 4 the 10 points, and you can earn no more than 10 points. The credit opportunities are in four areas.

Grammar and Expression Resources

You’ll find abundant supplementary material in the Guffey text and at the Guffey student site at www.meguffey.com, such as the Grammar and Mechanics Guide in Appendix A. And I’ve referenced many of my favorite writing resources on Blackboard, such as real-life text samples, articles and tips by Richard Nordquist, and regular FAQs from the Chicago Manual of Style online.

You may also want to receive assistance at the Undergraduate Writing Center (http://uwc. utexas.edu/) in the Flawn Academic Center on the West Mall. Tutors at UWC provide helpful attention and feedback, but they do not edit papers. And online Web sites can be very helpful, such as the popular OWL site from Purdue University (http://owl.english.purdue.edu/ handouts/print/grammar/).

We can discuss a plan for you to get extra practice and advice about grammar and expression while documenting your extra work to earn credits as well.

Diagnostic and Skill-Building Resources

You’ll have opportunities to take optional diagnostic tests or set up an enrichment regimen for honing your skills.

Show and Tell Contributions

I have been a writer and editor by trade, so everywhere I go I notice language peccadilloes most people don’t, such as the extraneous apostrophe on a sign touting “Taco’s for Sale” or the mind- numbing habit of many people today to say “each and every” when simply “every” would do. This hypersensitivity is my curse, and I’d be very pleased to share my curse with each and every one of you. I’ll award one credit for every contribution you share of something that the grammar police would find fascinating. Jot it down on the Show and Tell Report Form and give it to me before or after class. Because there is so much material out there, there’s a 10-credit maximum.

 Share signs of the times: notice when you see a local sign with errors or tortured expression. The sign must be in Travis, Williamson, or Hays counties  Share speak queasy quotes by politicians, athletes, celebrities, columnists, contributors, commentators, or academics with errors or tortured expression.  Share think before you write text samples in magazines, newspapers, or books—printed or electronic—with errors or tortured expression.  Share articles, columns, essays, blogs, or tweets about a language or business communications topic.  Share a cartoon that I judge worthy to add to my collection about business communication topics.  Share ear-rattling stuff you’ve heard in conversation, in media, in class, in meetings, in everyday social interaction.

Academic Integrity

4 5 The UT Honor Code

If you haven’t already, take a moment to view the UT Austin Web site for elaboration on the university honor code (http://www.utexas.edu/about-ut/mission-core-purpose-honor-code):

The core values of The University of Texas at Austin are learning, discovery, freedom, leadership, individual opportunity, and responsibility. Each member of the university is expected to uphold these values through integrity, honesty, trust, fairness, and respect toward peers and community.

I expect every student in this course to abide by the University of Texas Honor Code, which means among other things that any work you submit for academic credit will be your own or your team’s own. I encourage you to study together and to discuss information and concepts covered in readings, lectures, and activities. And while you may consult with students in other sections, such cooperation should never involve one student having possession of a copy of all or part of work done by someone else, in the form of an e-mail, an e-mail attachment file, a diskette, or a hard copy.

Should copying occur, both the student who copied work from another student and the student who gave material to be copied will receive a zero for the assignment. And the penalty for violation of the code may also include failure of the course and university disciplinary action.

During examinations you take individually, you must do your own work, without talking, comparing papers, copying from others, or collaborating in any way. Such proscribed collaborative behavior during the examinations will result in failure of the exam, and it may lead to failure of the course and university disciplinary action.

Important University Notices and Policies

Behavior Concerns Advice Line (BCAL)

If you are worried about someone who is acting differently, you may use the Behavior Concerns Advice Line to discuss by phone your concerns about another individual’s behavior. This service is provided through a partnership among the Office of the Dean of Students, the Counseling and Mental Health Center (CMHC), the Employee Assistance Program (EAP), and The University of Texas Police Department (UTPD). Call 512-232-5050 or visit http://www.utexas.edu/safety/bcal.

Emergency Evacuation Policy

Occupants of buildings on the UT Austin campus are required to evacuate and assemble outside when a fire alarm is activated or an announcement is made. Please be aware of policies regarding evacuation:  Familiarize yourself with all exit doors of the classroom and the building. Remember that the nearest exit door may not be the one you used when you entered the building.  If you require assistance to evacuate, inform me in writing during the first week of class.  In the event of an evacuation, follow my instructions or those of class instructors.  Do not re-enter a building unless you’re given instructions by the Austin Fire Department, the UT Austin Police Department, or the Fire Prevention Services office.

Tentative Course Schedule

I’m indicating my present plans and objectives in this syllabus, but as we go through the semester, those plans may need to change to maximize learning opportunities for the class and to respond to your feedback. I’ll communicate those changes as early and clearly as I can, so continue to check your e-mail frequently and the course site on Blackboard. And of course, be in class every meeting.

It’s not incidental that our three weekly gatherings are referred to as “class meetings.” Guffey and Loewy note that “no meeting should be called unless the topic is important, can’t wait, and requires an exchange of ideas” (p. 49). Given those criteria, our meetings certainly qualify as appropriate, providing occasions for productive work. Guffey also says that “if the flow of information is one way and no immediate feedback will result, then don’t schedule a meeting” (p. 49). So, to ensure our meetings are necessary and meaningful, we’ll follow a typical agenda each day that allows for significant interaction, exchange, and collaboration.

Typical Class Meeting Agenda

Date Purpose Agenda Topics Old Business :00 Quiz :10 Homework Review :15 Show and Tell

New Business :20 Lecture, Discussion, Activity, Test, Diagnostic, Review, Presentation, Demonstration, Speaker

Action Items Announcements Assignments for Next Class

The course schedule reflects the likely agenda items that will change from day to day: the “new business” portion from approximately 20 minutes after the hour through the end, any action items to note before we conclude, and a look ahead at the assignments due for the next class.

First Class Day: Wednesday, August 24 or Thursday, August 25 (Week 1) For Starters—It’s All about Attitude Agenda Topics Communicating Consciously Text Sample, Editing Exercise Communicating Professionally Meeting and Greeting

New Business Administrative Items: Syllabus, Policies, Schedule, Student Integrity Statement

Action Items * Obtain text book Assignment for Next Class * Read Chapter 2 Professionalism: Team, Meeting, Listening, Nonverbal, and Etiquette Skills

Week 2 August 29-September 2 Topics/Activities MWF TTh

Professionalism: Texas Enterprise Site Texas Enterprise Site Team-Building and Working Checkpoints Collaboratively Grammar and Mechanics Guide: Appendix A Calling and Conducting Checkpoints Productive Meetings Grammar and Mechanics Guide: Appendix A Listening, Nonverbal, Etiquette Skills Read Chapter 11: Report and Research Basics Read Chapter 12: Informal Business Read Chapter 11: Report and Reports Research Basics

Week 3 September 5-9 Topics/Activities MWF TTh

Read Chapter 12: Informal Business Read Chapter 13: Proposals, Reports, Proposals, Plans Reports Business Plans, and Formal Business Reports Team Formation

Presentations Skills Read Chapter 13: Proposals, Business Plans, and Formal Business Introduction of Business Plan Reports Impromptu Speeches Project

Read Chapter 4: Planning Business Impromptu Speeches Messages

Read Chapter 4: Planning Business Read Chapter 5: Organizing and Messages Writing Business Messages

Week 4 September 12-16 7 8

Topics/Activities MWF TTh Impromptu Speeches Impromptu Speeches

Process vs. Product Approach to Process vs. Product Approach to Writing Writing The Writing Process Work Plan Agreement Assignment Communication Triangle: The Aims 3x3 Guffey Plan MOD Lab West: April Kessler from and Modes of Writing Prewriting UT Libraries Writing Work Plan Agreement Assignment Revising Read Chapter 5: Organizing and Writing Business Messages Knowing Your Audience MOD Lab West: April Kessler from UT Libraries Communication Triangle: The Aims and Modes of Writing Read Chapter 6: Revising Business Read Chapter 6: Revising Business Messages Messages Executive Summary Assignment

Five Arts of Classical Rhetoric Five Arts of Classical Rhetoric

Primer in Standard Edited English Executive Summary Assignment

Proofreading vs. Editing: The Good, The Bad, and Good Grammar Exercise and The Ugly Activities

Five Grammars Good Grammar Exercise and Activities

Minimal Marking, Instructor Review, Minimal Marking, Instructor Peer Review Review, Peer Review

Read Chapter 8:Positive Messages

First Exam First Exam

First Exam Read Chapter 8: Positive Messages Workplace Communications E-mail Read Chapter 9: Negative Messages Letter Aim, audience, organization, style Memo Wiki Blog Read Chapter 9: Negative Messages Aim, audience, organization, style Phone Etiquette

Aim, audience, organization, style

Adjustment Letter Assignment Adjustment Letter Assignment

Week 7 October 3-7 Topics/Activities MWF TTh

Peer Review Peer Review Expression Cues Expression Cues

Principles of Survey Construction Peer Review Survey Assignment Expression Cues

Survey Assignment The Secret Life of Pronouns

The Secret Life of Pronouns

Grammar and Expression 9 10

Principles of Public Speaking Grammar and Expression Grammar Structure Primer Principles of Public Speaking Grammar and Usage Agreement and Parallelism Terminal Free Modifiers MOD Lab West Individual Prepared Presentations Group Work Day

MOD Lab East Group Work Day Individual Presentation: Speaker Introduction

2-3 Person Research Presentation 2-3 Person Research Presentation Assignment Assignment

Individual Presentation: Speaker Individual Presentation: Speaker Introduction Introduction

Individual Prepared Presentations Second Exam Individual Presentation: Speaker Read Chapter 7: Electronic Introduction Messages and Digital Media

Read Chapter 7: Electronic Messages and Digital Media Second Exam

Second Exam

Read Chapter 14: Business Read Chapter 14: Business Presentations Presentations

Week 10 October 24-28 Topics/Activities MWF TTh Team Presentations: Making the Lineup Team Presentations: On and Off Center Stage MOD Lab East Team Presentations: Transitions, Group Work Day Organizing for Impact Openings, Closings, Questions Building Audience Rapport Visual Aids Delivery, Body Language MOD Lab West Posture Group Work Day Team Presentations: Making the Sequencing Lineup Team Presentations: On and Off Center Stage Team Presentations: Transitions, 2-3 Person Research Presentation Openings, Closings, Questions

Week 11 October 31-November 4 Topics/Activities MWF TTh

2-3 Person Research Presentation 2-3 Person Research Presentation

External Communication Letter Blog Read Chapter 3: Intercultural E-Mail 2-3 Person Research Presentation Communication

Read Chapter 3: Intercultural Communication Legal and Ethical Responsibilities Cultural Sensitivities Legal and Ethical Responsibilities Inclusive Language Cultural Sensitivities Inclusive Language

Week 12 November 7-11 Topics/Activities MWF TTh

Guest Speaker Guest Speaker

Thank You Note Assignment Guest Speaker Notes Full Team Presentations Full Team Presentations: Business Thank You Note Assignment Plan

Full Team Presentations: Business Plan

Full Team Presentations: Business Plan Full Team Presentations: Business Plan

Full Team Presentations

Full Team Presentations: Business Plan

Full Team Presentations: Business Plan Full Team Presentations: Business Plan

Full Team Presentations: Business Full Team Presentations: Business Plan Plan

Full Team Presentations Conducting Project Post-Mortem Group Self Evaluation and Grammar and Usage Windup Debriefing Group Self Evaluation and Debriefing

Post-Mortem Post-Mortem Grammar and Usage Windup Grammar and Usage Windup

Post-Mortem Assignment Post-Mortem Assignment

Week 15 November 28-December 2 Topics/Activities MWF TTh

Grammar and Usage Windup Third Exam

Grammar and Usage Third Exam CIS Third Exam

CIS and Reflection